As we continue to play with the warband rules, I see more and more how important it is to still try and maximize model count. Last night, I swept Gary's Elves from the table because I outnumbered him grossly. Afterwards, Matt's Orcs ground me down even though I played well, in a large part because I broke before he did.

So, in thinking of a way to maximize models in my Eastern Kingdom army, I remembered that I had some Haradrim warriors that I could throw into the mix. Having troops that are as cheap as Orcs is very nice, and the lack of choice with the basic Haradrim warrior is blunted by assigning them to a reserve position where they can move forward and provided support with their spears and bows.

This army will then fight on a frontage of three Easterling Warbands with one Harad Warband in reserve. It will look for victory through attempting to assassinate enemy leaders with bowfire before grinding down enemy forces with superior numbers.

Thanks. Having Orc-costed spearmen is better than having 9 point spearmen, even if the Haradrim are a little squishier.

I don't know about archery "deciding" the game, but I was watching last night's game against Matt and his Orc trackers were doing a number on my troops, and could have easily killed off one of my captains had he so chosen. So, I plan a little disruption of the opposing force by targeting enemy heroes with archery, and since all of my heroes have bows, there's some Might behind that plan. It is true that I did not concentrate my bows, and it is specifically because of the random placement scenarios that I did that. Archers, out of position, aren't very good, and I'd rather have cohesive fighting units, especially since the units in "Take and Hold" are supposed to be advancing towards the center, for example. So, I'll take a few shots, and if I get lucky, then I'm in a good spot, and if not, it's not like I am wasting the effort of a whole unit anyhow.

AARGH! You're right. That utterly ruins my army list. I thought that they were still 6 points. Ah, well, downgrade the Khandish Chieftain to an Easterling Captain, and look to scrape up two more points somewhere else.

*My math skills are terrible. Anyhow, after demoting the one Captain from a Khandman to an Easterling, it comes out to be 597 points and the same, otherwise.

Well, that didn't work out as planned. I played a new player with a Dwarf army about half my size and I could not swing my right flank in quickly enough before the Dwarfs destroyed my left flank. That was disappointing, to say the least.

So, as intimidating as the four-warband army might look, it was unweildy and Easterlings fall pretty quickly to S4 Dwarfs with 2A. I really need to go back to what I know works.

Easterling Captains are nice and cheap and two pikes are there to increase the Captain's killing power. The Khandish Horsemen can shoot over the heads of the infantry and then sweep around the flanks to attack with their superior Fight score and knockdown abilities. This is what has worked in the past and I need to stick with it. Unfortunately, it's almost 200 points, so it's bye-bye four warbands. Now to design the other two warbands when inspiration strikes.

Cheers,

BdS

EDIT: So I spent some time looking over the choices in the Easterling army and grousing about the lack of S4 troops. I've tried those Khandish Axemen on a couple of occassions, and their lack of armor is a fatal weakness when they are fighting the enemy one-on-one. On the other hand, the Easterlings do have the very nice Dragon Knight, so I think that the list tends towards being more hero-centric than troop-centric, because although Easterling Warriors and Khandish Horsemen are decent enough troops, they are hardly overwhelming.

A mounted Dragon Knight is a powerful killer. With four attacks on the charge, and a high Fight score, he can trample opposing troops. His vampiric ability to regain Might is a nice bonus. Too bad he can't be a warband leader.

So, if I want to put a mounted Dragon Knight in the third warband, I would want that to be my "strike" warband. While my first warband is a good combined-arms group, I would want to make the third warband, where I would put the Knight, to be an all-mounted group.

Second Warband:

Easterling Captain with Bow2 Warriors with Shields, 4 with Bows, and 6 with Pikes

This warband is a bit slower and shootier than the first. It can give support to the first warband, shoot, or fight well on its own.

600 points, 36 models, which is not a lot of models, but it's a decent amount, and I am paying for the extra fighting hero. I had a configuration similar to this before, but I had a drummer in with the cavalry. I think that the extra fighting hero will be more useful.